Commentary

Every April 4, I play U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love),” to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The song runs through a series of historical figures who paid deep sacrifices, including Jesus, and ends recounting King’s assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968. At the time of his death, King was making common cause with poor black sanitation workers striking for better pay, and was planning a protest march later in the year in Washington, D.C., for his Poor People’s Campaign. As I played “Pride” this week, I wondered what King might make of our country had he lived. Today, according to the Associated Press, rates of incarceration for African Americans across the country are worse than in 1968. Our public schools are experiencing a wave of resegregation.

The Las Vegas Optic reported this weekend a former state Public Education Department official “managed to deceive the very state agency responsible for policing school administrators and teachers.” If true, how did this occur in the very PED bureau that is responsible for protecting against such fraud?

ByPaul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation |April 21, 2015

How did transparency and open government fare during New Mexico’s 2015 legislative session? Some of my ideas were discussed and acted upon while others were ignored completely. Change comes slowly in politics and that is doubly true in Santa Fe.

Although the sun was at high noon when it ended, the 2015 Legislative Session won’t be remembered as the Sunshine Session. Cue the theme song from Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” for a look at the 60 day term in the light of transparency.

ByJanice E. Arnold-Jones |January 17, 2015

COMMENTARY: If you think the political operatives and PACs who package candidates should pick your elected representatives and make campaigns for office incredibly expensive, stop reading and do not answer your door.

I’ll be blunt: the 2014 campaign for governor feels like canned reality TV. New Mexico needs a leader with a strong vision, an ability to communicate it in simple terms that unifies, and the know-how to make it happen. All I see is politics as usual.

COMMENTARY: Martin Esquivel was a member of a governmental board refusing to disclose an important report to the public while also on the board of an organization advocating for the report’s release to the public. The two are irreconcilable.